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Games

06/20/2012

I live in a blight-filled area of Michigan called Cottrellville Township. Over the last five years, Cottrellville Township has turned into an extremely ugly place tolive in throughout quite a few areas. No matter where you live in Cottrellville Township, you don't need to look far to find blight. This is why I -- Michael Zoran -- have decided to run for Trustee and also Precinct Delegate in the upcoming Cottrellville Township election on August 7, 2012. (By the way, my political signs are going to cost over $750. If anyone would like to make a donation using PayPal, please look on the right side of your screen to do so.)

Morris of Ramsey Digital is a close friend of mine. As soon as Morris found out how I was doing things such as signing contracts with Comcast to bring township meetings into the homes of residents on public access TV channel 12 and also on YouTube channel michaelzoran, Morris decided to help me out.

The prices are very reasonable for these videos. All you need to do is sendMorris some pictures and/or videos. You also need to tell him what the theme of your video needs to be. Morris will take over from there, and for the low price of $50 to $200, Morris will have a Hollywood style video for you in just a few days.

06/02/2011

Forza Motorsport 4 will be the biggest and best racing game ever released when it is launched for Xbox 360 later this year. It isn't just the amazing graphics, huge selection of high-quality cars, or the incredibly large number of tracks available in Forza 4 that make it a special racing game. Forza Motorsport 4 will be the first game in this excellent franchise to be fully optimized for the Kinect motion-sensor accessory, which is now in the Guinness Book of World Records as the fastest-selling electronics item ever! This is what we've been looking forward to all along!

We've known from the beginning Forza Motorsport 4 would allow us to drive by using our hands as the racing wheel. Kinect uses its motion-sensing abilities to accurately and precisely determine where we wanted to drive based on which direction we move our hands! We were told that when this feature is used the game will handle acceleration and braking responsibilities for us. This is a very simple setup many casual gamers will enjoy, especially kids, females, and older gamers.

But I'm starting to question what was said because of a new video Microsoft recently released. Microsoft has now revealed the motion-sensing abilities of Kinect will be used to track all of your head movements in order to add an even greater sense of realism to Forza Motorsport 4! This feature looks absolutely amazing in the video, and you can also see how stunning the graphics are in the game! Can you believe the graphics in Forza Motorsport 4 are even better than the current racing champion – Forza Motorsport 3!

But one thing in particular leaves a bit of controversy. In this video, you clearly see the brake pedal and gas pedal being used. These pedals are part of an accessory Microsoft discontinued several years ago -- a product that is now considered the greatest racing wheel ever released because it offered excellent force feedback. As an industry insider, this makes me wonder if I may see Microsoft start selling their force feedback steering wheel and brake/gas pedal accessory again. Or, will Microsoft sell only the brake pad and gas pad accessory this time, since Kinect will essentially be providing the wheel.

Please share your thoughts on this subject. Microsoft says they will be revealing other secrets about Forza 4 at E3. I know Gamestop and several other retailers give you a special group of great cars if you preorder the game right now. But, it wouldn't surprise me to see Microsoft release Forza Motorsport 4 in arcades. Here is a video for you to look at proving all this:

05/24/2011

Forza Motorsport is the racing franchise that defines the Xbox gaming platforms. Forza Motorsport is a game franchise that has been growing in a positive way over the last decade. Many reviews called Forza Motorsport 2 the greatest racing simulator ever made. Many people have been looking forward to Forza Motorsport 3 because it uses a brand new graphics engine with ten times as many polygons being displayed!

Similarly, Gran Turismo is a franchise that defines the Playstation gaming platforms. But over the last decade we’ve seen Gran Turismo games have been moving in a negative direction. Gran Turismo 4 was the lowest rated game in the series, and Gran Turismo 5 was constantly delayed – literally in development for over six years. Sony even released a game called Gran Turismo 5 Prologue in order to keep fans satisfied until the final game arrived.

Now we are going to see if Gran Turismo 5 was worth the wait. We are also going to see how Gran Turismo 5 compares to Forza Motorsport 3 on the Xbox 360. Key areas such as graphics, game play, online performance, and features will be examined. Here goes:

Graphics

Forza Motorsport 3 has significantly better graphics than Gran Turismo 5 in virtually every measurable way. The frame rate always remains at a perfectly smooth 60 frames per second in Forza Motorsport 3. Gran Turismo 5 often experiences problems associated with drops in frame rate. Replays in Forza Motorsport 3 also remain smooth at 60 frames per second while the replays in Gran Turismo 5 are only 30 frames per second.

The native resolution of Forza Motorsport 3 is 1280x720p. Sony originally claimed Gran Turismo 5 was going to have a native resolution of 1920x1080p. Unfortunately, the hardware of the PS3 was modified with one of the two Cell CPU processors being removed prior to launch. As a result, it was no surprise to see the PS3 lacked the power to live up to that promise.

The actual native resolution used by Gran Turismo 5 is 960x1080p. This is important because several websites, including websites offering head-to-head comparisons and technical analysis, have given false specifications of Gran Turismo 5. Resolutions such as 1280x1080p and 1024x1080p have circulated on the Internet. But these technical specifications are incorrect and do not apply to Gran Turismo 5.

In reality, it is the very unusual resolution of 960x1080p which ended up being used in Gran Turismo 5. 960x1080p means the horizontal resolution was cut in half compared to the original development plan. This is probably one of the reasons why Gran Turismo 5 was delayed so many times.

The reason why the frame rate remains smooth at 60 frames per second in Forza Motorsport 3 but drops to 30 frames per second during replays in Gran Tursimo 5 is because of the weaker GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) of the Playstation 3. The Xbox 360 GPU is capable of displaying up to 500,000,000 polygons per second, while the PS3 GPU is capable of displaying only 275,000,000 polygons per second. This is the reason why a game such as All-Pro Football runs at 60 frames per second on Xbox 360 but only 30 frames per second on PS3.

Replays require extra detail, which meant Gran Turismo 5 on the PS3 probably had no chance of maintaining anything close to a steady frame rate of 60 frames per second. Although disappointing, it was probably a smart decision for the developers at Polyphony to make the decision to have replays run at only 30 frames per second in Gran Turismo 5. The replays in Forza Motorsport 3 definitely look better than the replays in Gran Turimso 5.

The cars in Forza Motorsport 3 are built with between 300,000 polygons to 500,000 polygons per car. The cars in Gran Turismo 5 are built with 100,000 polygons per car to 500,000 polygons per car. The majority of cars in Gran Turismo 5 are built with fewer polygons; however, the “premium” cars are built with up to 500,000 polygons per car.

In Gran Turismo 5, the number of cars on screen has a big impact the game. There is an affect on the number of polygons allowed to appear on screen at the same time. You never see more than five cars on screen at a time in Gran Turismo 5, and when premium cars are seen it is even less. This also affects artificial intelligence (A.I.) in Gran Turismo 5, since one of the SPE sub-processors dedicated to A.I. in the PS3 architecture is virtually useless when intense graphics are being displayed. The artificial intelligence in Forza Motorsport 3 remains excellent at all times, regardless of the number of cars being displayed at any time.

In terms of the tracks and backgrounds, Forza Motorsport 3 has significantly better graphics than Gran Turismo 5. The texture quality, lighting, shading, and lens flare in Forza Motorsport 3 outperforms Gran Turismo 5 in every area. Simply put, if you play both games you will have no doubt Forza Motorsport 3 has better graphics.

Sound

The sound in both Forza Motorsport 3 and Gran Turismo 5 is excellent. I own a flagship Onkyo A/V receiver and high-end speakers from JBL. The surround sound adds realism to both games. No matter what point of view you choose to use in the game, the sound is excellent and will make you happy.

Game Play

Both games are fun to play; however, there is no doubt the winner is Forza Motorsport 3. Both games have been available for a while and the professionally published reviews in magazines and newspapers clearly show Forza Motorsport 3 is rated higher than Gran Turismo 5. Ultimately, game play is the reason why both game series have been popular over the last decade.

Forza Motorsport 3 is available as a Platinum Hit, which features a staggering 136 tracks to play on! There are also over 400 cars available right out of the box. The really cool feature in Forza 3 is that you can customize cars, signs, and logos, essentially giving you an infinite supply of cars to play with. What’s even better is the way you can create cars, and then auction them on Xbox Live!

Gran Turismo 5 has an impressive 71 tracks to play on with over 1,000 cars available to use. The overwhelming majority of these cars are just “standard” low-polygon designs that most gamers won’t enjoy using. The majority of cars in Gran Turismo 5 simply look like “upscaled versions” of the cars in Gran Turismo 4 which appeared on the PS2. Considering Gran Tursimo 5 spent over six years in development, it really is a big disappointment that such a huge number of cars lack polygon detail.

Both Forza Motorsport 3 and Gran Turismo 5 feature cars that can be damaged, although this feature is not immediately available in Gran Turismo 5. This is a cool feature that adds a lot of fun to game play. When you play online with other gamers, you always know it’s going to put a smile on your face when you see someone else crash or push a competitor into another car.

The damaged vehicles in Forza Motorsport 3 have a significant impact on game play and artificial intelligence. Unfortunately, damaged cars in Gran Turismo 5 are not influenced in any way by damage. This poor artificial intelligence in Gran Turismo 5 has led to a term called “Zombie A.I.” to be associated with the game.

One of the coolest new features I’ve ever seen in a racing game is the way Forza Motorsport 3 adds a form of “time reversal” button. By pressing the “back” button, you can go back in time as long as you hold the button. This means inexperienced gamers can instantly pick up the controller and start playing in a way that immediately brings enjoyment. The instant you see a friend mishandle a car on a turn, just tell your friend to hold the back button so they can give it another try. This is an excellent game play feature!

Winner: Forza Motorsport 3

Forza Motorsport 3 has a relatively easy time beating Gran Turismo 5 as a racing game. At this point in time, Forza Motorsport 3 is generally considered the greatest racing game ever created. There is no doubt the Forza Motorsport game series has continued to move in the right direction. I’m really looking forward to Forza Motorsport 4, which will launch later this year and offer compatibility with Kinect.

Gran Turismo 5 is quite a big letdown that did not live up to six years worth of hype. This is probably the reason why Gran Turismo 5 is the lowest-rated game ever released in the Gran Turismo series. In terms of graphics it was quite disappointing to see such a poor effort by the developers who were given so much time to program the game. Gran Turismo 5 is still a fun game to play, though, just not as fun as Forza Motorsport 3.

In fact, I would say Gran Turismo 5 is not even the best racing game on the Playstation 3. I can think of Need for Speed games that have a better balance of graphics, artificial intelligence, and gameplay. But if you own both consoles, I would recommend the Xbox 360 versions of those games because of better graphics, more people to play with online, and a larger number of people that own microphones to chat with while playing.

Champion: Forza Motorsport 3 is definitely the best racing game ever made. No other racing game offers so many tracks, high-polygon cars, features, and excellent artificial intelligence. If you enjoy racing games, I strongly suggest Forza Motorsport 3: Ultimate Platinum Hit because it can be purchased for a very low price. Amazon is an excellent place to purchase the game because you get free shipping and you may not need to pay taxes, depending on where you live.

05/23/2011

Recently, Capcom publicly stated how disappointed they were with the way Sony’s PS3 console was experiencing such awful problems with online hacking of the PSN. Capcom claimed to be losing a lot of money because of sales that potentially could have been made during that time period. Most videogame analysts thought Capcom was speaking out in a very unusual way, since we didn’t hear other third-party game developers making bold public statements like that.

Today I learned some of the interesting sales estimates Capcom has made for 2011. These sales estimates are very controversial considering the Xbox 360 has outsold the PS3 worldwide. First, I want to remind you that Microsoft’s Xbox 360 has sold over 53 million consoles worldwide, while Sony recently announced the PS3 has sold 50 million consoles worldwide. However, as I have confirmed on Controversy, Sony deserves the reputation they now have for publicly announcing inaccurate sales figures.

Capcom’s PS3 sales forecast shows an estimate of 8 million software units sold from the release of 16 different software titles. Capcom’s Xbox 360 sales forecast shows an estimate of 4.7 million software units sold from the release of 14 different software titles.

Even though the Xbox 360 has outsold the PS3, Capcom believes the PS3 will produce nearly double the software sales of the Xbox 360! This sales forecast doesn’t seem to make sense when you consider the Xbox 360 versions of software usually outsell the PS3 versions. For example, Crysis 2 is a recent high-profile multiplatform release resistant to statistical outliers. When sales figures of Crysis 2 started coming in, we saw the Xbox 360 version had outsold the PS3 version by a ratio of 1.7:1.

What are your thoughts about Capcom’s sales forecasts? There is no doubt the majority of third-party companies see greater revenue on Xbox Live than they do the PSN. Sega recently released Sega Rally HD Online exclusively for Xbox Live Arcade. With that in mind, why would Capcom make such outrageous sales forecasts favoring the PS3 by nearly a 2:1 margin?

05/15/2011

NPD Sales results for the month of April were just released. For the second month in a row, Sony has asked the NPD not to publicly release the actual number of PS3 units sold. Sony has commented on the sales figures, saying these results show year-to-year sales of the PS3 are up 13% for the month of April, 2011 compared to April, 2010. But for the second month in a row, Sony has asked the NPD not to publicly release the exact sales figures for the PS3 console. The controversial questions is, what would Sony’s motive be for doing such a thing?

Although the year-to-year sales for the PS3 are improved by 13% for the month of April, the same apparently could not be said for the month of March. If the PS3 had produced impressive sales figures or seen a year-to-year rise in sales, Sony would have wanted to announce this publicly, as they did this month. But we will never know for sure, since Sony did not allow those numbers to be released publicly.

Now that it seems reasonable that the PS3 did not see a year-to-year improvement for the month of March, it means there was apparently a year-to-year decline for March. This seems like a logical motive for Sony to ask the NPD not to release sales figures to the public. This seems particularly true when you take into consideration that Xbox 360 sales in March saw a year-to-year improvement of 28% and sold a whopping 433,000 units! The Nintendo Wii sold an impressive 290,000 units this March.

For the month of April, both Microsoft and Nintendo allowed the NPD to release sales figures, as usual. The Xbox 360 sold 297,000 units, which was a 60% year-to-year gain compared to April of 2010. Only 172,000 Wii units were sold for April 2011, which is a large year-to-year decline in sales. For 10 of the last 11 months, the Xbox 360 has been the top-selling console, while the Wii has continuously seen declines in year-to-year sales.

Several websites online have been listing an April sales figure of 204,000 for the PS3. However, this is not based on anything that the NPD publicly released with Sony’s permission. The only reason this number of 204,000 exists is because Sony has said there was a 13% year-to-year increase in sales. We know that the PS3 sold 180,800 units in April, 2010, which would put April, 2011, at 204,304 units sold.

The controversial question many people want answered is why Sony is no longer willing to allow NPD to publicly release sales information based on exact numbers. Although a year-to-year sales increase of 13% for the PS3 is not as good as the 60% year-to-year sales increase seen by the Xbox 360, it is still something to be proud of.

As I said before, Microsoft recently announced that the Xbox 360 has been the top-selling console 10 of the last 11 months. But if you investigate and look at the sales figures during those 11 months, you see that the PS3 finished in last place each of those months, except this month! This month the PS3 was apparently able to finish in second place, outselling the Wii for the first time in years!

With that in mind, we need to ask ourselves why Sony isn’t willing to put a spotlight on their exact sales figures anymore. Some people have speculated that the recent problems experienced with the PSN outage is Sony’s motive for apparently not wanting publicity. But what about Sony’s motive for not sharing exact sales data for the month of March? Was Sony’s only motive for not wanting to release March sales figures the fact that the PS3 finished so far behind its direct competitor, the Xbox 360?

Statements made by Sony Computer Entertainment CEO, Jack Tretton, indicate that Sony uses a far more forgiving method of defining what a “sale” is than Nintendo and Microsoft. We know that Microsoft and Nintendo consider a unit sold when it has “Been shipped to a retailer or wholesaler that has made a purchase.” This doesn’t necessarily mean consumers purchased the units in stores, but it does mean retailers and wholesalers have purchased the units and have them sitting in stores waiting to be purchased by consumers.

Statements made by Sony executive, Jack Tretton, clearly show that Sony’s definition of a sale is very different. Sony considers a PS3 unit “sold” the instant it is “Produced and placed into inventory.” This means even if a retailer or wholesaler has not purchased the unit, Sony still classifies PS3 units as “sold,” even though they are collecting dust in inventory warehouses. This is a method of cheating – telling the public a unit is sold, even though it hasn’t been shipped to a retailer or wholesaler yet.

Using this form of definition to define the word “sold,” Sony can take credit for millions of units being sold in a very deceptive manner that produces inaccurate results. The best example of this situation occurred in 2006 at the E3 show, and was then proven in 2007 during an interview that Sony executive, Jack Tretton, was a part of. I will briefly describe what happened.

At the 2006 E3 show, Jack Tretton predicted that the PS3 would sell 6 million units by the spring of 2007. But when the spring of 2007 arrived, only 1.4 million consumers worldwide had purchased the PS3. In fact, the PS3 never had a chance of selling 6 million units, since Sony was only able to produce 5.5 million units in factories. In this interview, you see a chart clearly showing that the PS3 had seen disappointing sales of only 1.4 million units worldwide, yet Jack Tretton is claiming that the PS3 was only “a half million” units behind Sony’s goal of 6 million units.

When you subtract a half-million (500,000) from 6 million, you end up with 5.5 million. This is the exact number of units that Sony says had been “produced” by the spring of 2007. Not even close to 5.5 million units had been shipped to retailers and wholesalers by the spring of 2007. This obviously means that Sony’s executives were claiming that all 5.5 million units that had been produced and placed into inventory warehouses were classified as “sold,” even though 4.1 million of them were still sitting in warehouses collecting dust.

Most people believe that the reason Sony started classifying sales in this inaccurate manner is because the PS3 saw such disappointing sales when it launched. Even in Japan, the PS3 has not sold well – even being outsold by the Xbox 360 several months during the first couple years of its life. Each time the Xbox 360 saw an exclusive launch of an RPG game like Blue Dragon, Lost Odyssey, Infinite Undiscovery, or Tales of Vesperia, it would produce a spike in sales that resulted in the Xbox 360 outselling the PS3 in Japan that month.

This is a surprise, because foreign products like the Xbox 360 usually sell very poorly in Japan – a market that always does its best to stay away from American products. If executives at Sony Computer Entertainment would have told Sony shareholders that only 1.4 million PS3 units had been shipped to retailers due to a lack of consumer demand, it would have caused management executives to be fired. This is probably why Sony executives started reporting the number of units “sold” in a way that was synonymous with the number of units “produced.”

In fact, Ken Kutaragi, the designer of the PS1, PS2, PS3, and PSP was asked to step down and instead take up the roll of Honorary Chairman. This is the Japanese cultural way of getting fired, since Japanese companies have a tradition of hiring an employee for life. The PS2 and PS3 were both criticized by developers for being difficult to program. As a result, Ken Kutaragi is no longer involved with the Playstation products.

Most people don’t realize that Sony still uses this form of deception when publicly announcing sales figures such as 50 million PS3 hardware units sold worldwide. Sony can get away with this because most of the world doesn’t accurately keep track of sales the way we do in North America. But in North America, Sony can’t get away with deception like this because the NPD sales data is so accurate. According to NPD sales figures, the Xbox 360 is outselling the PS3 at a large rate.

This is very important because North America is the largest videogame market in the world. This expanding sales gap between the Xbox 360 and PS3 is the reason why popular multiplatform games such as Crysis 2, Portal 2, and many others continuously see sales figures significantly higher on Xbox 360 – a console that has sold 53 million units. If the Xbox 360 has sold 53 million units while the PS3 has sold 50 million units, it is a difference of only 6%. With a difference of only 6%, it would not be possible for Xbox 360 versions of software to continuously outsell PS3 versions by such a wide margin.

For example, Crysis 2 is a highly rated game resistant to statistical outliers. Crysis 2 recently launched on both the PS3 and Xbox 360. But we saw the Xbox 360 version outsell the PS3 version by a ratio of 1.7:1. This would not have happened if the Xbox 360 had only a 3 million unit hardware sales advantage over the PS3. Thus, we can logically conclude there is obviously a bigger gap than 3 million units between the Xbox 360 and the PS3. I believe this is why Sony no longer wants sales data from NPD and other sales organizations released to the public.

I really do recommend you take a look at that interview here. This will help you to see what I’m talking about. Thankfully, the person on CNBC interviewing Sony executive, Jack Tretton, was not fooled or deceived, as you will see in this interview: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFIDsTsWJHw

Please share your thoughts about why Sony is no longer allowing NPD to publicly release exact sales figures of the Playstation 3, even though the PS3 has done several impressive things this month.

05/10/2011

Previously, I wrote a very detailed five-page article about my impressions of the Gears of War 3 beta. You can read that article by clicking here.

Now I’m going to give a further update on the Gears of War 3 beta. It appears several things have changed and/or been modified by Epic in some way. Based on my observations, I will explain everything in detail one subject at a time.

* Independent Online Servers: One of the things Epic promised from the beginning was independent servers online. Gears of War 3 is scheduled to be the first Xbox 360 game to offer this feature. During the first week the Gears of War 3 beta was available to everyone who preordered the game from Gamestop, I saw for myself that independent servers have the ability to work fine in a way that puts everyone on equal ground. Everybody is playing fairly in an environment where there is no form of host advantage. When independent servers are being used by Epic, I rate Gears of War 3 a 10 out of 10.

Unfortunately, news reports surfaced a couple weeks ago that the independent servers had gone down. From that point on, Gears of War 3 has used the same form of server setup used by other games. This is very disappointing and very frustrating because of host-server advantages. Games just aren’t as fun as they used to be with the Gears of War 3 beta, simply because all of the gamers are no longer competing on equal ground.

The best example of what I’m referring to can be described very easily by telling you about something I personally experienced. My teammates and I had filled an enemy with enough bullets to put that enemy down. But the enemy was behind an area where the bullets of my teammates could no longer reach the enemy. This meant the kill was going to be mind, since I was the only person on the team that had the ability to hit the fallen foe.

While this fallen enemy was crawling around on the floor, I had my Gnasher Shotgun armed. I used the Left Trigger to target the enemy and I used the Right Trigger to shoot the gun. I expected the enemy to die from that one shot at close range. I was surprised when the enemy did not die, so I targeted the enemy again and shot again. Once again, the enemy did not die! I repeated this process two more times, and yet the enemy would NOT die!

By the time I had hit the fallen enemy four times, he was able to tap the A-button enough times to stand up again. When the enemy got up, he just turned around and killed me with one close-range shot of his own Gnasher Shotgun. Can you say, “Not Fair?” This was the most unfair situation I have ever been involved with in any Gears of War game, and I instantly started telling people that if the final version of Gears of War 3 was going to be like that, I would be sticking with Call of Duty games. Unfair host advantages like that are why I stopped playing multiplayer in Gears of War 2.

The bottom line is that Epic needs to make sure Gears of War 3 uses independent servers. The host-advantage has too much of a negative affect on Gears of War game play. Please, Epic, make sure Gears of War 3 keeps your promise of independent servers.

* Glitches: Since the end of the first week, I have only encountered one glitch. This glitch was on May 8, 2011. Two friends and I simultaneously joined a match in progress. My two friends joined and I was watching them without any problem. But I was never able to join. I’m not even sure if my character joined at all. If my character did join, he was just standing there doing nothing. The only thing I could see was the Ghost Camera viewpoint. Epic, this needs to be fixed. The map it occurred on was The Trenches.

This was similar, but worse, than a glitch I experienced during the first week. During that week, I was in the Thrashball stadium. I was able to join the game and I could see the point of view of my character. But my character was stuck in the same spot. The only reason the match ended was because my teammate killed me with a grenade. Epic needs to fix this type of glitch.

* Grenades: In my last article, I promised that I would talk about grenades in my next article. I have kept my promise, and my analysis can be very simple. I think Epic got the grenades just right. The smoke grenades don’t do any damage; however they play a very important role in strategy. You can also use smoke grenades in the Capture the Leader mode, since a smoke grenade will cause the captured leader to be set free.

Frag grenades are just as powerful as ever. You can use them to kill multiple enemies at a time by throwing them or by tagging them to a wall or an enemy. The cool thing in Gears of War 3 is that if you are tagged by an enemy you can actually try and take that enemy out so that at least both of you die. This means if you tag an enemy with a grenade, you need to get away fast.

Ink grenades emit a very powerful gas of poisonous smoke. This can kill multiple people, including your own teammates. In fact, you can even potentially kill yourself with the ink grenade. The use of the Ink grenade is excellent and I think Epic has it right. It seems like the strength of the Ink grenade has been slightly lowered from the first week of the beta up to this point. This is probably a good thing because the ink grenade is supposed to cause people to evacuate, not necessarily die.

Incendiary grenades are a very powerful form of flame grenade. I feel very confident that these grenades have lost a lot of power from the first week compared to right now. During the first week of the beta, I lost count of the number of times I saw people dying from the incendiary grenade explosions that caused people to burn to death. Now, you need to stay in the lava flame for quite a while before you are in danger of dying; I never see people die from this anymore. Epic might want to make it so the strength is slightly increased, or possibly so the lava stays in the same spot for a long time. This would add a strategy element that makes it so you take away part of a map, since lava is there for a while.

* Gorgon Pistol: During the first week, it seemed like the Gorgon needed to be a lot more powerful. The reason for this is because the Gorgon needed to be a lot more powerful! It seems like Epic may have added some power to the Gorgon since the first week. Now it is actually possible to put an enemy down with the Gorgon, if you put an entire clip of ammo into him. But it is very common to have kills stolen from you while firing the Gorgon. You need to use a whole clip just to put an enemy down, regardless of range. By the time you reload your Gorgon pistol, someone else has already killed the enemy.

In my opinion there is absolutely no reason to waste time picking up a Gorgon pistol in Gears of War 3. Epic needs to increase the power of this pistol and make sure it has more ammunition in each clip. The simple fact is, if there is no reason to pick up a weapon, why bother picking it up? With that in mind, you need to ask the question if the Gorgon pistol really belongs in the game. It is a very cool weapon with a lot of potential, but it simply needs more ammo and more power.

* Boltok Pistol: During the first week I thought it was awful the way the Boltok was so week. I once got two headshots and a third shot to the chest on an enemy and the enemy did not die! Epic appears to have increased the power of the Boltok, but not enough. This week I fired a perfect headshot on an enemy, and it still did not kill the enemy. Although, I was once killed with a single shot to the head. This makes me wonder if the reason why that headshot did not kill the enemy is because of the host-server advantage.

My advice to Epic would be to make it so the Boltok is more powerful. It doesn’t shoot very fast, and it takes relatively long to reload. With that in mind, it is alright if the Boltok pistol is a powerful weapon, especially at close range. C’mon Epic, make it so this pistol is powerful the way it should be! If the Boltok pistol were more powerful, more people would pick up the weapon and be motivated to use shields.

* Boomshot: This weapon works exactly as it is supposed to. If you get hit with it, you die! It normally comes with only two or three rounds, so make sure you use it carefully. Epic should keep things exactly as they are with the Boomshot.

* Torque Bow: This weapon is a powerful weapon that takes a bit of practice firing. Anyone familiar with this weapon already will be fine with Gears of War 3. It takes a second or two to aim, and then if you hit the enemy they are blasted with a powerful shot. I think Epic has things just right with this weapon.

* Longshot Sniper: This weapon functions exactly as it did in previous Gears of Wars games. If you use the scope and get a headshot the enemy always dies. If you hit them in the chest it usually requires two shots to get a kill. If you miss the head, you feel guilty and accept responsibility. The Longshot sniper weapon makes it so headshots become particularly important, and it allows the graphics to look fantastic. You can literally see the teeth of the enemy with that scope! Epic should keep things exactly as they are with the Longshot sniper rifle.

* Oneshot Sniper: This new weapon has an incredibly long range – far longer than the Longshot. The other big difference is the power of the weapon. The Oneshot usually has only three rounds of ammo, but they are powerful! The Oneshot sends out a beam of light, similar to the Torque Bow so that an aware enemy knows they are being targeted. But if you can shoot someone with the Oneshot, they will be killed in one shot! In my opinion, Epic should keep things exactly as they are with the Oneshot.

* Digger Launcher: This new weapon adds a lot of new strategy to the game. The Digger Launcher usually has about three rounds of ammunition when you pick it up. But each of these three rounds is capable of killing multiple opponents with one shot – similar to a grenade. In fact, the aiming of this weapon is virtually identical to a grenade, even though you hold it as a gun.

When you shoot the Digger Launcher weapon, it sends out a big tunnel being ripped through the ground. If you are near that explosive tunnel being sent in your direction, you will die if you don’t get out of the way. You can see it coming, so you need to hop to the side in order to get away. I believe Epic has done a great job with the Digger Launcher and should keep everything as it is.

* Flame Scorcher: This weapon desperately needs more power! Of all the weapons in Gears of War 3, the one that is the least useful is this flame thrower weapon. Regardless of where this flame thrower is available for people to pick up, I never see people take the time to pick it up. I presume the reason I don’t see other people pick this weapon up is the same reason I don’t pick it up – it is absolutely worthless as a weapon!

Epic needs to make some huge changes with this particular weapon and the flames it throws. When you shoot someone with flames for three seconds while they are running at you through the flames, and then they kill you with one close-range Sawed-Off Shotgun blast, it means the game loses one full point in my book! In other words, Gears of War 3 goes from a 10 to a 9 in my book, simply because of that one huge problem! Epic, I am telling you on behalf of gamers everywhere: Make the Flame Scorcher weapon more powerful!

* Hammerburst: Last time I wrote a detailed report about how the Hammerburst rifle needs more power. I still want to make it 100% clear that the Hammerburst rifle needs more power. It is very common for people to unload an entire clip of Hammerburst ammo at enemies, and yet the enemy will not even fall! Epic, this needs to be changed for obvious reasons.

The simple fact of life in videogames is that if you shoot someone to the point where you need to reload a weapon, you expect that enemy to die! For goodness sake, if you unload an entire clip in an enemy, you at least expect the enemy to fall down! But when you unload an entire clip in an enemy while he is running directly at you, only to get blown into pieces with a single shot from his shotgun, it means gamers are motivated to play a different game. Epic, make it so the Hammerburst and Flame Scorcher weapons are more powerful!

* Conclusion: Overall, I believe Gears of War 3 has the potential to be the best game released in 2011. However, there are still some fundamental flaws that prevent this from happening. Several weapons such as the Hammerburst and Flame Scorcher desperately need more power. If the Flame Scorcher isn’t given that power, Epic should remove it from the game to avoid embarrassing themselves. Why bother picking up a weapon if it has no use or puts you at an obvious disadvantage.

I really hope Epic takes the time to read this four-page article, along with my previous five-page article. I really did take an incredible amount of time to try and help Epic. I hope my blog Followers enjoyed reading this. Please feel free to share your thoughts on my blog.

Also, if you have suggestions for Epic regarding the Gears of War 3 beta, visit this website in order to let them know what you’d like to see in the final version of Gears of War 3 or what problems you have found in the beta version: http://forums.epicgames.com/forumdisplay.php?f=400

Finally, I'd like to mention a couple really cool things Epic did with the beta of Gears of War 3. On the weekend of Easter, the characters had heads with bunnies! And last weekend the characters had oversized heads with very high-pitched voices similar to what a person sounds like if they breath helium! This was very funny!

05/09/2011

On April 20, 2011 the Sony PSN online service went down with over 74 Million users affected in a negative way by online hackers taking advantage of Sony's weak security system. A short time after, the service went down again with another batch of over 20 Million users affected in a way that involved a breach of credit security and financial records that would allow identity theft to occur. Sony recently announced that May 31st is the date currently being targeted for the return of full functionality to the PSN. The Playstation Blog says that Sony has a goal of restoring online game play prior to May 31st.

No other problem in the history of the videogame industry has ever produced such an impact on so many millions of people – approximately 100 million people. As an industry analyst, I believe next months NPD sales figures will confirm just how angry consumers are with Sony. Senators, congressman, and other politicians in the United States, Canada, Australia, Japan, and all across Europe have criticized Sony for their lack of responsibility and selfishness. Consumers do not appreciate it that Sony was not willing to inform users within a reasonable time period in an effort to avoid negative publicity.

One of the best games ever released by Sega for the Saturn game console in the 1990's was a game called Guardian Heroes. On May 5, 2011 Sega announced Guardian Heroes would be released exclusively for Xbox Live Arcade this fall. Sega says Guardian Heroes will feature enhanced high-definition graphics and online co-op when it is released for Xbox Live Arcade!

Guardian Heroes is a multiplayer 2D side-scrolling game. Enemies fill the screen, battle after battle, similar to a Golden Axe type of game. However, Guardian Heroes has moves far more complex -- with motion controls similar to Street Fighter and Virtua Fighter. The RPG elements of the game are excellent, particularly the way experience points are earned throughout the game. The plot in Guardian Heroes is very detailed and it helps you get to know the characters very well.

In addition to the side-scrolling co-op mode, there is also a battle mode where up to six players can participate simultaneously. Characters that you met throughout the story mode of the game are available to play as in this battle mode. One of my favorite parts of the battle mode is that absolutely nothing is left out.

For example, in the story mode there is a character named Randy that has a tiny pet rabbit named Nando. In the story mode, Nando is actually a part of several of Randy's moves and makes very funny karate-style noises and movements. In the battle mode, you can actually play as Nando!

Guardian Heroes is considered one of the best games ever released for the Sega Saturn by game critics and fans. Everything from the 2D graphics to the music with catchy tunes is praised by gamers. I really hope Sega releases Guardian Heroes sooner rather than later, and at an affordable price -- preferably 800 points or less. By the way, I've got dibs on Nando!

05/07/2011

Electronic Arts has told reliable sources in the videogame industry something very interesting. Apparently EA is now in possession of alpha development kids for the third Xbox console from Microsoft. This development kit is apparently in some form of PC casing structure, similar to the alpha development kit released for the original Xbox. Job postings from Microsoft confirm a next-generation console is being designed; however, these job postings seem to indicate the console is quite a ways away.

This next-generation console from Microsoft will definitely be released, but we do not know exactly when this console will be released or what its name will be. Some rumors have suggested the third Xbox will be released as early as 2012 in order to compete with Nintendo’s next console, currently called the Wii 2. While other rumors have suggested that Microsoft’s next console may not see a release until 2015.

Here are my thoughts where I focus on facts in order to generate a fact-based theory.

1. We know for a fact that the Nintendo Wii 2 will be released in 2012.

2. We know for a fact that the Wii 2 will be a direct competitor of the Xbox 360 and the PS3. The hardware specifications of the Wii 2 are nearly identical to the Xbox 360 and PS3. For example, the Wii 2 has 512MB of RAM just like Xbox 360 and PS3. We also know the GPU of the Wii 2 is from ATI and nearly identical to the Xbox 360 GPU from ATI. We also know the CPU of the Wii 2 is tri-core, just like the Xbox 360 CPU.

3. We know for a fact that the Wii 2 will not be competing directly with the third Xbox and PS4 (if there is a PS4, since Sony has literally lost billions of dollars on PS3).

4. We know for a fact that NPD sales show Xbox 360 was the #1 selling console in 2010. We also know for a fact that NPD sales show Xbox 360 has been the #1 selling console every month of 2011.

5. We know for a fact that Kinect is in the Guinness Book of World Records for being such a high-selling item. Over ten million units of Kinect have been sold in a record time period.

6. We know for a fact that Xbox 360 continues to see annual sales growth. We also know that the Wii and PS3 have seen annual sales decline in 2011.

Based on these six fact-based elements, I can form a fact-based theory that says Microsoft has no motive to put an early end to the life of Xbox 360.

Now let's look at my hypothesis based on estimations of what Microsoft has done in the past. While I do not have facts to support this hypothesis, I do believe my experience in the game industry has merit to support my thoughts.

A. We know that games like Halo and Gears of War tend to be released every other year. But we also know that Gears of War 3 took three years to be developed because Microsoft and Epic wanted to develop everything correctly. This is the same type of precision and accuracy that Microsoft and Epic would want to apply when a new console is released. This is particularly true with a game like Gears of War that is known for setting new standards in graphics technology.

B. This means that if Gears of War were a launch game for the third Xbox, the soonest it would happen would be 2013—two years from 2011. But it seems like Epic and Microsoft would want to spend extra time developing graphics engines and making use of superior hardware. I think a new Gears of War game (probably a prequel named Gears of War: The Pendulum Wars) would be released in 2014. In my opinion, if Gears of War is the launch game for the next Xbox, the soonest the console would be available is 2014.

C. If Microsoft wanted to launch the third Xbox in 2013, I believe the launch game they would need to do it with is Halo. I say this because Halo: Reach was released in 2010. The developers would have the three years of development they probably would need to release a new Halo game on new hardware. Plus, Halo is a killer-app game that would guarantee all of the consoles sell out!

Based on these three thoughts, I can guarantee that the third Xbox will be released by the end of 2014. But I believe 2013 may be too soon. The third Xbox will not be meant to compete with the Wii 2. The third Xbox will be meant to compete with high-end PC technology and the PS4 (if there is a PS4). In all probability the PS3 will not be able to generate an overall profit by 2014 or 2015. PS3 will have cost Sony literally billions of dollars, which is why rumors have circulated for quite a while saying that the PS3 will be Sony's last videogame console.

04/29/2011

Throughout 2011 and 2010 the Xbox 360 has been the industry leader of the videogame market. Every month of 2011, and the majority of 2010, has seen the Xbox 360 dominate the English-speaking parts of the world – even setting sales records that now appear in the Guinness Book of World Records! All throughout 2010 we saw the Xbox 360 continue to rise in popularity.

This demand for Xbox 360 products continues to accelerate each month according to sales provided by NPD and other sales groups throughout the world. For the month of March, 2011, the Xbox 360 sold an incredibly impressive 433,000 units. This new sales information was recently released, but it was not reported by several websites due to the fact that the Gears of War 3 beta is getting all of the attention from the videogame world right now. The Gears of War 3 beta is available to everyone for free, if you place a preorder at Gamestop.

Microsoft recently announced that from January to March 2011, the Xbox 360 sold an additional 2.7 million units of Xbox 360 hardware. This is over one-million more units than Microsoft sold during the previous quarter! This puts the number of Xbox 360 units sold at over 53 million units around the world. Microsoft can be proud to say that the Xbox 360 took the Xbox brand in the right direction this hardware generation. There is no doubt that Microsoft leaves this generation better off with a much larger percentage of the market than when they started – all thanks to great games and great online services.

This fiscal quarter, Microsoft saw revenue of $16.43 billion. This was an increase of 13% over the previous fiscal quarter from 2010. Microsoft’s fiscal third-quarter profits were $5.23 billion – which results in a profitable earning of $0.61 per share. In a recent statement, Microsoft’s Chief Financial Officer Peter Klein said “We delivered strong financial results despite a mixed PC environment, which demonstrates the strength and breadth of our business. Consumers are purchasing Office 2010, Xbox, and Kinect at tremendous rates, and businesses of all sizes are purchasing Microsoft platforms and applications.”

With all the excellent first-party and third-party games being released for Xbox 360 in 2011, it looks like 2011 will be the best year ever for Xbox 360. The same can be said about Xbox Live Arcade games and the hundreds of exclusive Indie games we will see online. Kinect will also be seeing the release of games that people have been looking forward to ever since Kinect was first shown.

For example, Star Wars is a game I’ve been looking forward to ever since I first saw that game on display at a trade show. Gamers will use their Kinect to simulate a Jedi duel with a light saber, which is very exciting! And then gamers will get to use the motions of their hands to simulate using the force to throw an entire group of androids against the wall!

With all of this in mind, it appears sales of Kinect and Xbox 360 are going to remain very strong throughout 2011.

Update 5/12/2011: The NPD sales results for April were just released for the month of April. Once again, the Xbox 360 is the top-selling console. The Xbox 360 sold a very impressive 297,000 units. This means that for 10 of the last 11 months, the Xbox 360 has been the top-selling console according to NPD sales figures.

Gears of War 3 is a beta that I really enjoy playing a lot, especially with my excellent home theater setup that actually influences game play. You often know when someone is coming up behind you because of which surround or stereo speaker you hear the sound of footsteps coming from. The graphics are absolutely amazing – far better than any other Gears of War game. The color palette has been enhanced, there are far more customized items, and the draw-distance allows you to see further than in previous Gears of War games. Even the weather has an impact on both graphics and game play in Gears of War 3.

At this point I’d like to share my thoughts with Epic. During the course of a beta, the developers of a game are supposed to be listening to what gamers have to say in order to fix problems that exist. I am now going to explain some of the situations I have experienced with both glitches and game play. I will also be pointing out some issues that I am impressed with that Epic needs to keep in Gears of War 3.

* The first thing I noticed about Gears of War 3 is the fact that you now need to hold down the X button for a half second in order to pick up a new weapon or extra ammunition. This is a wonderful addition to game play because it completely solves the problem of accidentally picking up the wrong item unless you are in the perfect spot. Now, a visual X shows up on the screen and a white arrow moves around it in a clockwise rotation so that you see exactly what it is you are picking up. If you don’t want it, just let go of the X button. This is a great addition to game play!

* Spots! The ability to pull the Left Trigger and then press in on the Left Thumbstick in order to put a "Spot" on an enemy that you have seen adds a tremendous amount of teamwork to Gears of War 3! This type of ability to put a mark on an enemy that is hiding out makes it so your entire team can work together to track down an enemy that is hiding. This is a form of game play that did not exist in previous Gears of War games.

Previously, if an enemy was hiding out at the end of a match, it was annoying that your team could not work together to find the enemy and isolate the enemy. If there was one enemy left and three people on your team, you just needed to grab your shotgun and hope that one of you would be able to kill the enemy since the odds favored your team. Thankfully, Gears of War 3 adds teamwork!

Now, if you or one of your team members spots the enemy, you can put a mark on the enemy. This will allow each of you to go after the enemy from a different direction. Or you can use machine guns to pin him down from a greater distance than the shotguns would allow. This is a great part of Gears of War 3 that truly does add awesome team-based game play! Epic did a great job adding this feature!

* The next thing I should mention is that I once experienced a glitch with respawning. My character spawned in the traditional spot, but I was not able to move. I was frozen in the same spot and I could see all around me, but I was unable to fire weapons or move. Apparently the only way this was able to come to an end was when someone killed my character. And the strange thing is that I believe it was one of my teammates that needed to come in and shoot me with a shotgun. This only happened once, but I sure hope Epic makes sure this doesn’t happen again.

* I’m not sure if it was a glitch, but it is very annoying the way the Gears of War 3 beta sometimes works when you try to shoot an enemy while using a heavy weapon near a ledge. Several times, I was using a heavy weapon while balancing it on a ledge when I saw someone trying to sneak up behind me. Instead of letting me shoot in the direction I wanted, the ledge behaved like a magnet and forced my heavy weapon onto it. This was not fair and it caused my character to die.

For example, when I saw someone trying to get behind me, I pulled the large weapon off of the wall and faced the enemy that had gotten close to me. I tried shooting the enemy that was close to me (now with my back to the wall that I was previously using as a type of tripod rest for the heavy weapon). But rather than letting me shoot in front of me like I wanted, the Gears of War 3 beta instead forced my weapon back onto the ledge so that I was literally shooting 180 degrees in the wrong direction. The enemy just walked up to me and shot me in the back because there was nothing I could do. This problem definitely needs to be fixed by Epic.

* There are several close spots on a couple of maps. These close spots can cause problems because the Gears of War 3 beta currently does not always recognize what it is you want to do. In the old town and on the map where there is a loud horn, I was trying to take cover. I wanted to run forward by holding A. Instead, the game made me move over to the next side of the wall, as if I tapped the A button in order to try and seek cover there. I think Epic might want to make it so there are very few “tight spots” like that in Gears of War 3.

Whenever a map gives gamers the “opportunity” for something to go wrong, it significantly increases the odds that gamers will be complaining that something went wrong – especially when millions of matches will be played. The solution is to get rid of that part of the environment.

* Hammerburst is a weapon I enjoyed using in Gears of War 2. The Hammerburst is a weapon that I absolutely HATE using in Gears of War 3. In Gears of War 3, the Hammerburst is the weakest weapon I have ever seen in a videogame. I have literally lost count of the number of full clips I unloaded into enemies running right at me, and it didn’t kill them!

What is worse is that after I started shooting the Hammerburst, hitting the enemy the whole time, they just start running directly at me! The people being hit with the Hammerburst have the intention of taking all those shots until they get close enough to fire off ONE round with the Sawed-Off Shotgun, Gnasher Shotgun, Chainsawing you with the Lancer, or stabbing you with the Retro-Lancer. The single round from the very powerful Sawed-Off Shotgun instantly kills. I’m not saying the strength of the Sawed-Off Shotgun is a bad thing, since that weapon has a very long reload time and is risky to use. What I am saying is that when you spend five seconds unloading a full clip into someone, they should easily die! … Epic, please take the time to fix the Hammerburst weapon by making it more powerful.

To be honest, Epic really should have spotted this problem already. When you choose your default weapons, you are allowed to choose the Lancer, the Retro Lancer, or the Hammerburst in one arm. And you can place the Sawed-Off Shotgun or the Gnasher Shotgun on your back. The two shotguns make a great choice – you can’t go wrong either way. Some people will like the extra close-range power of the Sawed-Off Shotgun, while other people will like the extra range of the Gnasher Shotgun.

But the Hammerburst is a weapon that is immediately identified as an inferior weapon. The Lancer and the Retro Lancer vary in power and range, so some people might like one and other people might like the other. But the way Epic currently has the Gears of War 3 beta, only an idiot would want the Hammerburst. The menu shows a range and power rating that visually makes it 100% clear the Hammerburst is inferior to the Lancer weapons. Epic should have noticed this and done something to make it so the Hammerburst is mower powerful. Seriously, it is a shame that the Hammerburst is so weak that you can unload a whole clip into a character and they will still live!

* Sawed-Off Shotgun is a weapon that I really like. It is incredibly powerful – it easily kills in one shot at close range. In fact, there have been two times when I witnessed the Sawed-Off Shotgun simultaneously kill two characters! If someone is hiding around a corner and waiting for you, it means the instant you turn that corner you are going to get blown to pieces by that powerful weapon! I’ve found it helps to run around corners the long way in order to get a better point of view of what might be hiding, sort of like taking the outside track in a racing game.

The Sawed-Off Shotgun has awful range, though; it is not the sort of weapon that you can use in an open environment against people with long-range weapons. The Sawed-Off Shotgun takes a very long time to reload, too. But in all honesty I think this is a good thing for game play in order to make things fair. The Sawed-Off Shotgun is so powerful that if it reloaded quickly it would mean someone using it would be invincible. The way things are now, if you risk using the Sawed-Off Shotgun but miss, you better start running away immediately in order to have some time to reload the thing. Epic has things very close to perfect with the Sawed-Off Shotgun, so I recommend keeping things as they are.

* Mortar is a heavy weapon that seems to function perfectly right now. The range, power, and reload time are excellent. I recommend Epic keep things exactly as they are with this heavy duty weapon. It can take out an entire group of enemies, but you need to aim it perfectly and it usually has only about three rounds of ammo. You are also 100% vulnerable while using the Mortar, which is fair, since the Mortar is so powerful. This adds strategy to the game, too. Don’t use the Mortar to fire those heavy-duty shells unless you have someone there to cover your back.

* Retro Lancer is a weapon that adds a new element of team game play to Gears of War. The accuracy and precision is not as good as the traditional Lancer, but the Retro Lancer has extra power and kickback. You can literally feel the controller of the Xbox 360 vibrating BIGTIME with the Retro Lancer, which is awesome! Epic has done a nice job in this area and should keep things the way they are.

The Retro Lancer has a very unique form of Melee Attack, which Epic should keep the same. In the same way that holding the A button causes you to run, holding the B button will cause you to run while holding the Retro Lancer. This does a great job of simulating what it would be like to Charge against the enemy. The part of game play that is interesting is the way you need to hold down the B button for a long enough time period in order for the bar in the upper-right side of the screen to turn red. Once this happens, it means you will slaughter the enemy.

This Retro Lancer is also a great form of team combat. I’ve seen several intelligent groups of online gamers stick together while each of them held the Retro Lancer. Each of them would start holding the B button at the same time, while charging at the same enemy. This meant there wasn’t much the person being charged at could do, since three people were simultaneously charging right at him! One of the three Charging Retro Lancers almost always got him.

I like what Epic has done a lot with the Retro Lancer. The one and only area Epic might want to change is making the Retro Lancer be a little bit more mobile. If you are running with the Retro Lancer, it is common to accidentally charge into a wall. But, if Epic did make the Retro Lancer more flexible it might make the Retro Lancer too powerful. Epic needs to take this one into consideration and evaluate what people say – maybe I just needed some more practice.

* Lancer is the traditional chainsaw-equipped automatic weapon we all know and love in Gears of War. In Gears of War 3, the Lancer still has excellent range. The strength of the Lancer seems to have been slightly toned down, though. The Lancer is one of the weapons where it is not entirely uncommon to empty an entire clip into an enemy running at you, with a reward of being killed in one shot with some form of Shotgun. I believe if you empty a full clip into someone, they should die. With that in mind, I am asking Epic to please increase the power of the Lancer.

The chainsaw element of the Lancer still kills the enemy effortlessly. The chainsaw duels also have the same type of game play we saw before. The one part of the chainsaw that seems to be different is that if you decide to use the chainsaw by pressing the B button, it takes a very slight amount of time longer to start it. This means that if you are holding a Lancer waiting to peak around the corner and use the chainsaw, but your enemy is holding a pistol, you will lose the battle more often because it takes longer to start the chainsaw. This seems fair to me because the chainsaw always results in a death when you use it.

* Digger Launcher is a new weapon that many people believe is their favorite new weapon. The Digger Launcher is incredibly powerful; it can kill off an entire group of enemies at the same time. The Digger Launcher is fired in a direction where it causes what appears to be a type of earthquake that you can see coming at you. The first time you see this, you will be saying “What is that?” and then you will die. But, once you realize what the Digger Launcher attack looks like, you will realize the way to counter it is by tapping the A button to roll out of the way. Just make sure you get the heck out of the way of someone using the Digger Launcher and you should be alright. I really like what Epic has done with the Digger Launcher.

* Boltok is a pistol that definitely needs to be modified by Epic. This weapon is incredibly weak and it takes too long to reload. If a weapon like this is going to take that long to reload, it should at least be powerful enough to take out an enemy with a headshot at relatively close range. It was very disappointing the way I would hit enemies three times with the Boltok, including two headshots, and the enemies would just keep running at me. Epic, please change some things with the Boltok; it needs a faster reload time and/or more powerful ammunition.

* Gorgon is a pistol that fires multiple eight-shot rounds. This weapon can be very powerful if you fire it at close range. In Gears of War 2 this weapon seemed like if you hit the enemy with all, or at least the majority, of the rounds, you would put the enemy down or set him up to be taken out with the next shot. In Gears of War 3 it doesn’t seem to be like that. The Gorgon appears to have lost some strength, which is annoying.

The simple fact is that most gamers come from the camp of “If you empty an entire clip of ammo into an enemy while he is running at you, it means that enemy should die.” The Gorgon no longer functions in that way. You can keep shooting an enemy repeatedly while he runs at you, but the enemy will not die! Most of those rounds will miss. As soon as the enemy is close enough to you (after running at you while you were shooting them with the Gorgon), it means they will shoot you and kill you with one shot of the Sawed-Off Shotgun or the Gnasher Shotgun. This is simply NOT FAIR!

Epic, make some changes in terms of power with the Gorgon. Nobody has a problem with dying when they are hit that much! If an entire clip of ammo is emptied into your character, people expect to die! Even people that live say things like “Man that wasn’t fair to the guy shooting me all that time.”

I’d like to make something clear to Epic that they really need to focus on. On one map I grabbed the Gorgon, and then I ran behind an enemy that was scoping enemies and firing. I walked directly behind the enemy at close range – the point that I was almost touching the enemy. I shot the Gorgon, and all of the shots hit the enemy. I then shot again, and all shots appeared to hit. But the enemy did not die! Instead, the enemy switched weapons and hit me one time – killing me instantly! This is NOT FAIR! Epic, please upgrade the power to the Gorgon!

* If you don’t feel like taking the time to create a screen name for the Epic website, you can post your comments here and I will gladly share your thoughts on the Epic forum.

I will be writing an update within the next several days about the Grenades and some of the other weapons in the Gears of War 3 beta. It is difficult to find out what using the new grenades is like because people are always in such a rush to grab them on the maps. I will write an update within the next few days so that we can share thoughts with each other.

Note: I am currently unemployed and seeking work. If Epic or anyone else would like to hire me as a writer, business manager or in areas of marketing, I possess the qualifications to be hired in these areas of work.

04/27/2011

For more than a week, Sony’s PSN online network that works with the PS3 game console has been down because it was hacked into by pirates. Yet Sony’s management has refused to even admit that it was hackers that caused the problem. Connecticut Senator, Richard Blumenthal, carefully listened to the situation regarding millions of people that have been influenced in a negative way by Sony’s poor management. Thankfully, Senator Blumenthal recently took the time to responsibly act on behalf of millions of people across the country.

Senator Blumenthal took the time to write to the president of Sony Computer Entertainment of America, Jack Tretton. In this message to Tretton, Senator Blumenthal criticizes Sony’s lack of effort to inform users of the PSN service that their personal financial information has been compromised. Problems such as identity theft, illegal purchases, and many other troubles with credit cards and debit cards can easily occur in this type of situation when people are not informed within a reasonable time period. Yet Sony’s management seems unwilling to accept accountability for all of these problems due to the fact that it would generate even more negative publicity for the PS3 – a console that has been criticized for disappointing sales ever since it launched in 2006.

“A breach of such a widely used service immediately raises concerns of data privacy, identity theft, and other misuse of sensitive personal and financial data, such as names, email addresses, and credit and debit card information. When a data breach occurs, it is essential that customers be immediately notified about whether and to what extent their personal and financial information has been compromised. I am concerned that PlayStation Network users’ personal and financial information may have been inappropriately accessed by a third party. Compounding this concern is the troubling lack of notification from Sony about the nature of the data breach.”

You can read the entire letter that the very responsible Senator Richard Blumenthal writes to SCEA president Jack Tretton, here.

04/26/2011

Update: As of 6pm reliable sources are reporting credit card information probably has been compromised on the PSN. This means that if you use the PSN, hackers probably have your credit card information. You should probably read this article, and then look to the bottom of the page for some advice on what to do.

The PSN (Playstation Network) is still experiencing technical problems this week. This is a very unfortunate problem for PS3 owners, especially when you consider that the PSN service stopped working last week. Last Friday, we saw that Sony said these technical problems affecting both the PSN and the Qriocity musical service were being caused by “An external intrusion,” which many people initially interpreted as a form of piracy caused by hackers. This was particularly true considering that from Sony’s legal point of view the PS3 recently experienced many forms of high-publicity online piracy associated with the PS3.

The really stressful dilemma with these PSN troubles is that Sony claims there may be personal data that may have been “compromised” on the PSN. Compromised is a word that has a very large scope, which is a bit disturbing to some people. Does this mean that personal data such as screen names has been compromised by gaming thieves? Or does this mean that personal data such as credit card information has been compromised by financial thieves?

Based on the way this situation was recently described on Sony’s Playstation Blog, it appears that Sony did recognize what was happening fairly quickly – motivating them to shut down the PSN service right away. Let’s just hope no form of problems end up haunting the users of the PSN. When personal information is stolen and abused, it really is annoying to people in the 21st century.

Regrettably, as of April 26, 2011, Sony is still saying they do not have an update or time frame when the PSN or Qriocity services will be functioning correctly online again. Thankfully, Patrick Seybold, speaking on behalf of Sony, has said that he is aware of the fact that PS3 owners are waiting for additional information regarding when the PSN and Qriocity services will be online again. Although the PSN online gaming environment is still down, at least Sony is aware of the fact that consumers aren’t happy. Sony’s public statements suggest they are doing their best to fix the problem.

Originally, many people thought these online problems were being caused by another group of high-publicity hackers that had breached the PSN again. However, most industry analysts now believe Sony is having some technical problems internally with their online servers. This seems like a reasonable theory considering there are quite a few PS3 games scheduled for release soon. Perhaps one of these external disc-based games has caused some internal compatibility issues with the online servers.

Many gamers point out this could not have happened at a worse time for Sony. There was a recent banking holiday in Europe, which meant gamers had plenty of time to play online. Plus, Microsoft recently gave all Xbox 360 owners in Europe a free weekend of Xbox Live service in order to try and set a world record in online gaming. This really took a lot of attention away from the PS3 and shifted it towards the Xbox 360 in parts of the world that do not speak the English language.

Let’s hope Sony can get these problems with the PSN online service solved quickly. A lot of PS3 owners are very disappointed right now, since they can’t play online with their friends anymore. Kids at school and adults at work that enjoy talking about videogames aren’t talking about playing games online on their PS3. This certainly helps the competition, especially when you consider Microsoft is currently running a beta test online with this year’s most-anticipated game of all – Gears of War 3.

Controversy is a website that will keep you updated on the status of the PSN online service. We will let you know when the PSN service starts working properly again.

UPDATE (6:30pm 4/26/2011)

Many websites have confirmed that the PSN has in fact been compromised in ways that put credit card data of PS3 owners at risk. My best advice right now is for you to take a look at the great article on IGN that talks about "How to Protect Yourself." You can take a look at this great article here.

For now, I can briefly give you some tips on how to monitor your credit information. First, monitor your credit cards that have been used with the PSN service. You can easily do this online in the same way you pay credit cards online. If you see that something was purchased that you didn't buy, make sure and report it to the phone number on the back of your credit card. As long as you do this within the appropriate time period (usually 60 days), you will not be required to pay for this illegal purchase. Also, by reporting the illegal purchase, you will be helping to track down the hackers.

Second, make sure that you try to keep track of when your credit card statements normally arrive in the mail. If you suddenly realize "Hey, my credit card statement should have arrived in the mail by now," it means your statement was either lost in the mail or sent to a different address by a hacker. This needs to be brought to the attention of the credit card company right away so they can find out what is going on in a way that makes it so you are not charged for things you didn't buy.

Finally, if you start receiving credit card bills from cards you didn't previously have, if you start receiving calls from debt collectors, or if you are declined approval for credit cards, car loans, or mortgages that you should have been approved of, it may indicate your identity has been stolen. I strongly suggest you visit that article on IGN in order to learn more. Whenever a company like Sony allows software piracy and hacking to occur on this level, it really is an unfortunate scenario that costs consumers a lot of time and money.

04/21/2011

Microsoft has recently started posting job offers to engineers. The way the job descriptions describe the situation, it appears obvious the jobs will be focused on the design of the successor to the Xbox 360. But several analysts have pointed out that since Microsoft hasn’t even determined which parts will be used in the third Xbox, it means the Xbox 360 has a lot of life ahead of it.

This seems particularly true when you consider Nintendo will be releasing the Wii 2 console in 2012 to be a direct competitor of the Xbox 360 and PS3 consoles. Obviously, Nintendo would not want to release a Wii 2 console that would see vastly superior competition just a short time after its release. Let’s assemble the facts so that we can try and come up with a fact-based theory.

Here is a list of facts we know so far:

* Nintendo recently announced the Wii 2 will be released in 2012. The Wii 2 will not be a direct competitor of the PS4 or the third Xbox. The Wii 2 will be the direct competitor of the Xbox 360 and PS3. I wrote an article about this here, and another article with additional information here.

* The hardware specifications of the Wii 2 show it will offer performance similar to what is used by the Xbox 360, PS3, and PCs of today. Wii 2 uses 512MB of RAM, just like Xbox 360 and PS3. Wii 2 uses a GPU that is nearly identical to the one in the Xbox 360. The same can be said about the 3.0Ghz tri-core CPU used by the Wii 2 compared to the 3.2Ghz tri-core CPU used by the Xbox 360.

* The third Xbox currently rumored to be in the very early stages of development will obviously not be competing directly against the Wii 2, since that would mean it is competing directly against the Xbox 360.

* Nintendo feels confident enough to release the Wii 2 in 2012 because they believe the eighth generation of videogames represented by the Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, and Wii 2 still has a lot of life in it.

* Sony said the PS3 will have a 10-year life expectancy. If this is true, the PS3 is on schedule to be released in 2016 – ten years after the release of the PS3.

Now that these facts have been gathered, we can try to form some theories and hypotheses. If the PS3 had a 10-year life expectancy, it seems reasonable that the Xbox 360 would also have a life expectancy of 10 years. In this scenario, the third Xbox would be released worldwide in late 2015 – 10 years after the release of the Xbox 360. This seems like a logical theory based on the facts available and the success that Microsoft has enjoyed by beating Sony to market by one year.

From this point of view, it isn't a surprise or a concern that Microsoft is waiting on assembling engineers for development of the next Xbox. Even PCs at their highest and most expensive points right now do not offer a significant improvement over what is seen in the graphics offered by Xbox 360 and PS3. This is important because history has always shown that whenever a new generation of consoles has been released, there is a brief period where the consoles have the hardware advantage over PCs.

For example, when Xbox 360 launched in late 2005, it did so with a revolutionary ATI GPU based on Unified Shader technology, which PC graphics cards didn't see until 2007. The same thing can be said about the eDRAM technology used in the Xbox 360. And in 2005 when Xbox 360 launched with a tri-core CPU, PCs were only using dual-core CPU processors.

We haven't seen technology evolve enough for a new generation of consoles to replace Xbox 360, PS3, and Wii 2. Remember, based on the specifications known so far, the Wii 2 is evolutionary – intended to compete directly with the Xbox 360 and PS3 in a high-definition online environment. This is an online environment where the Wii 2 is at a big disadvantage compared to Xbox Live.

The third Xbox will be revolutionary due to the fact that it will be made up of customized technology that PCs eventually become based on in order to make multiplatform programming easier for developers. Over the course of time, PCs will eventually catch up and overtake the consoles again. This is a cycle that has continuously repeated itself throughout videogame history. PC technology is the one form of technology that we can look at and use as a constant measuring stick to estimate when we might see new consoles overtake high-end computers.

I believe consoles will not be able to make a significant improvement over PCs until at least 2014 or 2015. This is when rumors indicate new forms of technology will be available for use at a price the public would see as reasonable. But just because technology is available doesn’t necessarily mean companies will want to rush something to market.

From a business perspective, the Xbox 360 and PS3 are only now starting to reach their peak. Xbox 360 is now the top-selling console every month in North America and other English-speaking parts of the world. And only recently has the PS3 started consistently earning net profits each financial quarter.

With that in mind, Microsoft and Sony probably aren’t in any rush to kill off the Xbox 360 and PS3, even if the technology was available. Microsoft recently released the Kinect, which immediately became the fastest-selling electronic item in history. By selling ten million units within a 60-day time period, Kinect is now in the Guiness Book of World Records. It would be foolish to put an end to the life of an Xbox 360 performing that well!

Sony’s initial investments in the launch of the PS3 caused a net loss of nearly $4 billion. After the disappointing launch of the PS3, Sony continuously saw net losses of hundreds-of-millions of dollars each financial quarter afterwards. From a financial point of view, it seems reasonable to presume that Sony wants the PS3 to last until 2016, if possible. This would be the only way for the PS3 to have any chance of earning an overall net profit during the course of its life on the market.

At this point in time I really doubt we will see a new Xbox console by 2014. But, we do know that Microsoft wants to expand the Halo series and Gears of War series. One hypothesis of mine is that a new series known as Pendulum Wars (a prequel to Gears of War) would be released with the third Xbox. If Epic spent three years developing this game, it would be ready by the end of 2014.

The question is if the technology available by 2014 would offer revolutionary advancements that a competitor like Sony would not be able to eclipse two years later. To be honest, I think Microsoft probably could have a big game from Epic, such as The Pendulum Wars, released by late 2014. But, it might be better for Microsoft to take their time getting everything right and putting all the icing on the cake. This would probably make 2015 a better release date, especially since Microsoft would continue earning money from the Xbox 360 the whole time.

04/17/2011

This is the question many people have been asking recently. What I would like to know is who your favorite Gears of War character is and why.

Just write a brief statement like the one I write here:

Clayton Carmine once told his two younger brothers something they remembered for the rest of their lives: "Failure is a Badge of Honor."

Clayton Carmine used to live his life as a successful businessman. Clayton told his younger brothers that one of the classes they needed to take at the academy was called “Every Business is Built to Fail,” because you learn a lot from making mistakes in life. But the locusts killed his younger brothers, so now it’s personal!

In Gears of War 3, Clayton Carmine becomes an entrepreneur as a Locust Headhunter – a market he will dominate at the expense of the Locusts!

As long as the Locusts have manpower, Clayton Carmine Exterimation will remain in business with one very enthusiastic boss!